Obituary: Jake Schott

Jake Schott, 97, passed away on Oct. 10, 2011, at his home in Fort Collins. Jake was a longtime resident of the area, having been born in a farmhouse south of Fort Collins on March 29, 1914.

Jake’s parents were German-Russian immigrants who worked in the sugar-beet industry, as many immigrants did at that time. After Jake’s father’s death in 1918, his mother remarried and moved the family to southwest Kansas where Jake spent his childhood on a dryland farm.

As a teenager, Jake and his brother Carl came back to Fort Collins where they worked in the construction industry. Jake had very little formal education, always working to survive, but became an accomplished mechanic/welder. Jake married Lucille Koch on July 16, 1938.

During World War II, Jake worked on a government project, helping to build the Green Mountain Dam near Kremmling. After the war, Jake and Carl bought a farm near Waverly, north of Fort Collins, where they farmed and began a water-well drilling business. For the next 30-plus years they drilled agricultural irrigation water wells in northern Colorado.

Jake retired from farming in 1980 and moved into town, where he and Lucille lived until her death in 1996. Jake continued to work as a welder/mechanic for several of his former farm neighbors until the age of 90. In his final years, he enjoyed gardening and tinkering with projects around his home.

Jake is survived by his son Lloyd, a daughter-in-law, two grandsons, twin half-sisters, and numerous nieces, nephews and their children.

The family asks that no flowers be given. Instead, donations may be made to the Jake Schott Memorial at Meals On Wheels of Fort Collins, P.O. Box 354, Fort Collins, CO 80522 or Pathways Hospice, 305 Carpenter Road, Fort Collins, CO 80525.

Funeral arrangements are through Vessey Funeral Services.